Man in Sierra Leone first Briton with Ebola

Sunday

Aug 24, 2014 at 12:01 AMAug 24, 2014 at 1:37 PM

A British national living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola, the first Briton to fall victim to the deadly disease that has spread across western Africa since March, the United Kingdom Department of Health said yesterday.

A British national living in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola, the first Briton to fall victim to the deadly disease that has spread across western Africa since March, the United Kingdom Department of Health said yesterday.

The World Health Organization estimates that the current Ebola epidemic — the world’s worst ever with 1,427 documented deaths — likely will continue for six to nine months.

Some aid organizations have warned that the outbreak, which began in Guinea before spreading to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, is out of control.

On Friday, the WHO conceded that the hiding of victims and the existence of “shadow zones” where medics cannot go has concealed the scale of the epidemic.

Britain’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer John Watson confirmed that a British national was among those suffering from Ebola and said medical experts were assessing the situation in Sierra Leone to ensure appropriate care was provided.

No further details about the British national were available, and it was not known whether there were plans to evacuate the patient.

Two American aid workers who contracted Ebola in neighboring Liberia and were then evacuated have recovered from the disease and were released from a hospital in Atlanta last week.

Fear, stigma and denial have led many families to hide their infected loved ones from health officials. In other instances, patients have been forcibly removed from treatment facilities and isolation centers, creating the risk of the disease’s further spread.

As the outbreak has spread across borders from its initial epicenter, governments in the region have introduced tight travel restrictions.

Late Friday, the government of Ivory Coast announced that it had closed its land borders with Guinea and Liberia to try to prevent the virus from crossing onto its territory.

Ivory Coast previously had imposed a ban on flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Yesterday, the Philippines ordered 115 soldiers to return home from peacekeeping operations in Liberia because of the outbreak there.

Brussels Airlines, Belgium’s largest carrier, said yesterday that it was canceling flights to the capitals of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone for today and Monday because of new restrictions put in place by Senegal’s aviation authority.

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